Rigid Alien Funk (1983)

I swear to god this is what disco would sound like produced by asexual robot aliens. It's actually kind of disturbing.

here

MARY MARY MARY IT'S ME (1992)

'hip hop soul'- the collage is undoubtedly rap- grimy, heavy, nocturnal- the singer is undoubtedly skilled/soulful, but displays no desire to transcend the hip hop foundations she's been given. rather there's a chill atmospheric synthesis more often favoured by only the most boom bap loving emcees of this era.

A-

here

Shalamar - Friends (1982)

They just duet and tag-team AND DUET and then they duet with a ROBOT on Playing to Win and it's just CRAZY 'cause there's no like virtuoso Kashif-ish sound-bending transcendence, mainly just real positive/lively duets and that weird ass sakata rattle drum, and inevitably, because such positive energy just can't be maintained for a whole record, sappy slow ones that either enhance the lively ones 'cause contrast/dynamics, or are sort of just a bummer. The point is though, life and feeling good:

Let me make you feel good, I can make you feel good (oh so good!)!

so the robot is just wow!

B+

here

Sing it if you want a better way of life! (1989)

IN HAIKUS-

People of the world today
Scratch the tops of their heads and
Sort of wince at this

Ball sweat from bball
Played a Japanese guy who
Was as bad as me

Offered him a beer
He declined but tried to sell
Me cigarettes and

I was like 'I don't
smoke and I have no money'
He needed money

His friend was meant to
Pick him up at the airport
But never showed up

I winced at that too
Having read the description
Of 'wince' which before

I was ignorant
Of evidently because
This record goes hard

In fact if I see
It around I will buy it
You don't have to though

If you don't want to
Here's a dropcanvas link for
Your troubles, love you

Have a good night and a great weekend

A

Anxiety (2013)

1. Did gloomy hipsters ruin R&B in 2012? (the guardian, 29 December 2012)
2. Nah (everyone)
3. Will gloomy hipsters ruin R&B in 2013? (someone, 5 March 2013)
4. Nah (most people)
5. Anxiety's all about disconnection and Ashin already told you that before you heard it
6. I guess the inclusion of Munch's The Scream on the cover would've been too obvious, though obviousness isn't something Anxiety avoids, ever
7. The art of disconnection- anxiety as the byproduct of desire and lack, of not having and wanting, or of having and not wanting, behold the nature of desire and the inevitability of anxiety
8. Behold the opening and closing tracks
9. Peter Gabriel
10. Post-internet
11. Grimes
12. Turgid solipsism or a treatise on the self (universal) and r&b in general (pretentious, unnecessary)
13. Seriously though
14. He'll probably fess up and say that's the point, man
15. And I'll be like yeah I know, man
16. And he'll be like did you hear where it's all poppy and there's a buzzsaw
17. And I'll be like yeah that was a cool song, man, is it about your anxiety, my anxiety, their anxiety, or every r&b song ever
18. And he'll be like it's all the same, man
19. Anxiety in the age of superficial knowledge+connections+identities
20. A scream through the vaporwaves
21. Climbing Up the Walls for gloomy 21st century hipsters
22. Does its status as a socio-technolo-musico-psychological dissertation add to or lessen its value?
23. Well, when it gets me by the balls...
24. And then when it doesn't...
25. Love it when it screams to me and gets all in my head and like makes me feel sick
26. Because at those points it's beyond the self-awareness, irony, and intertextuality supposedly defining it- it's startling, and human- a sort of cure for the conditions of its (his, and our) anxiety
27. And when it fails to transcend...
28. A failure. Don't let anyone tell you that its failures enhance its message (Lacanian self-analysis)
29. Because they will, and it matters more than that- Anxiety occasionally transcends both the problems it deals with and its ideological arsenal- an emotional mess that utilizes the 21st century existential crisis for moments both reassuring and genuine (if absurd) 
30. It's about moments, I'm sure, and it has them, sure, and to have highs you need lows, and if it was all desire achieved without the subsequent lack then it would be to avoid the condition of having and not wanting, meaning no anxiety, meaning no Anxiety, and so he sticks to his conceptual guns, so it's more truthful, fine, but man, this makes me lame, or whatever, but on a third of these tracks we get something transformative, something curative rather than reflective, evidence of the power of art, and emotion, whether it lifts or crushes, it breaks us out of our heads rather than telling us what's in there and why we're in there, occasionally it's a work of art beyond the one that people are saying it is, and how am I in the minority not being frustrated by this

B-

try/buy/spotify

Teddy Pendergrass - Satisfaction Guaranteed: The Very Best of Teddy Pendergrass (2004)

C'mon, I couldn't not post this after Rawse's verse

What makes a good best-of? I guess you have to like the artist and then assess whether the good tracks are covered or not. Two discs, 16 songs each, is a lot of Teddy Pendergrass and I venture to say Satisfaction Guaranteed has him covered

A

buy

Rick James - Street Songs (1981)

The classic one- the cover's not as mesmerizing as Bustin' Out of L Seven which recalls The Ramones' big dumb 80s period, playing Street Fighter at an arcade machine at night, Escape From New York, and The Warriors. Nor as creepy as Throwin' Down which is the end of Poltergeist II meets Mad Max by way of a creepy sexual theme park ride or laser tag. Not as confusing as Garden of Love's surreal take on reggae artwork. BUT I LOVE THOSE BOOTS. OH THE CLASSIC ONE. There's no Mary Jane or epic heartfelt Hollywood! But that doesn't matter. There's a Ghetto Life, and if that's not good enough, a Super Freak. You know what? I'd be happy with even one of them. The fact that it opens with the lesser known (actually a single, whatever) but equally strong Give It to Me Baby just makes the record all the more confident: James is gonna come back from a critical lull (Garden of Love), grabbing the listener's attention and promising he won't let go 'til his 8 tracks are over. His grip weakens (now regretting this analogy) on Mr. Policeman- not because of the message but because it's not quite as good as the ones that come before and after. The final four are solid though. The only problem might've been the seven minute Fire and Desire, but it's crazy epic and touching in its hit those high notes when you've got no more words to sing wooooooooo sugar sugar sugar-ness. His songs don't always grab me (I try to forget about his and Prince's rivalry), but there's always enough chaotic funk and sexual ridiculousness to keep me listening and saying fuck yeah I love Rick James! Street Songs! Mary Jane! Hollywood!

A

buy
spotify

Evelyn "Champagne" King - Get Loose (1982)

Produced by Kashif

From where I'm sitting (nowhere special!), this sounds fucking awesome. I got it real cheap too!

A

spotify
buy

Bryan Loren - Lollipop Luv (1996)

1. Lollipop Luv

2. Easier Said Than Done

3. For Tonight

4. Complications

5. Do You Really Love Me

6. Falling In Love

7. Stay With Me

8. Take All Of Me

I was all HOW THE FUCK WAS THIS RELEASED IN 1996 LOOK AT THIS GUY ALSO LISTEN TO THE SOFT-PRINCE-FUNK ON THIS THING and then realized that Bryan Loren was released in 1984 then re-released as Lollipop Luv in 1996 so it's not a record made by these dudes with Jheri Curls who got sent into space in the 80s and forgot everything except food, water, and their Prince tapes so were in some weird musical/historical/cultural vacuum where they didn't know that MJ turned into a white guy or that Prince was now an unpronounceable symbol....

Yeah, reality is stranger but I'd love this even more if it was legitimately spaceman vacuum funk. When I called it soft-prince,funk, I just mean it's sweet poppy funk that doesn't throw anything unusual or experimental into the mix (as Prince frequently would). Straightforward, but really well written and performed so straightforward isn't an insult at all. In fact, the simplicity is the reason I like it so much

A+

spotify

Kashif - Kashif (1983)

Aaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww yeeeeahhhhhh. I get an aural boner from this. I like the vocals- his and the ones which ride in and out on waves of sweet 80s synths. Also the bass. The bass and drums are all electronic-y-future-funk so the songs fun and danceable. Everything else is waves. Sensual reverbed out waves.

A+

spotify

Mariah Unplugged (1992)

1. Emotions 4:00

2. If It's Over 3:47

3. Someday 3:56

4. Vision of Love 3:36

5. Make It Happen 4:09

6. I'll Be There (feat. Trey Lorenz) 4:42

7. Can't Let Go 4:35

Her voice is better recorded live and the songs she performs on this EP are real good. Emotions and I'll Be There in particular

A


spotify

V/A - Waiting to Exhale (1995)

1. Whitney Houston - Exhale (Shoop Shoop) 3:25

2. Whitney Houston - Why Does It Hurt So Bad 4:37

3. Toni Braxton - Let It Flow 4:27

4. Aretha Franklin - It Hurts Like Hell 4:18

5. Brandy - Sittin' Up in My Room 4:52

6. TLC - This Is How It Works 5:00

7. Mary J. Blige - Not Gon' Cry 4:58

8. Chaka Khan - My Funny Valentine 4:06

9. Sonja Marie - And I Gave My Love to You 4:48

10. SWV - All Night Long 4:31

11. Chanté Moore - Wey U 4:32

12. Patti LaBelle - My Love, Sweet Love 4:21

13. Faith Evans - Kissing You 3:23

14. For Real - Love Will Be Waiting at Home 5:59

15. Shana - How Could You Call Her Baby 5:09

16. Whitney Houston and Cece Winans - Count on Me 4:26

This is gonna be the start of a thing where we all post our favourite soundtracks

I thought I'd start it with Waiting to Exhale. The film is famous for featuring an all African American cast, but the soundtrack is much more highly regarded than the film

Babyface wrote every song except for My Funny Valentine and then picked all the best singers of the day to sing them. Highlights include Whitney Houston's Exhale (Shoop Shoop) and Brandy's Sittin' Up in My Room


The link below isn't mine, but I've checked it and it's legit. Unfortunately I'm losing my internet collection whenever I try to download or upload anything


A+

320

Yeezy - 808s & Heartbreak (2008)

Yeezy's saccharine robocop concept album: the heat and mind destroyed by an event, the machine required to hold things together. 808's dumb aggression sufficiently balanced by lines as achingly true as I know my destination, but I'm just not there regarding the need to, and yet seeming impossibility of, moving on

PS delete the fuck out of that bonus track. Shit goes straight self-parody

A-

v0